Officer impersonator tries to enter woman's home

Police issue an important warning for residents in Pasadena where a man tried to gain a woman's trust and get into her home by posing as a police officer. Officers say this story could have had an entirely different ending, but in this case, the intended victim did the right thing. This all happened at a home on Bearle Street, near the La Porte Freeway. At about 11am Tuesday there was a knock at Maria Gomez's front door.

Gomez said, "The second time he asked again if he could come into the house. And I said, 'I need to see some identification. If you don't leave, I'm calling the cops.'"

At the same time she says he was trying to pull the door open to get inside.

"But the minute I said (cops) he took off running," Gomez said. "He jumped in his vehicle and just took off."

The man was neatly dressed, wearing a white button down shirt and dark slacks, but he's not believed to be an officer of the law, because he had no badge and no ID.

"The woman in this case demanded to see some identification," said Pasadena Police Assistant Chief Bud Corbett. "Had she not done that, I guess it could have played out in any number of ways."

The man is described as well-dressed with a button down shirt and dark slacks. He has short dark hair that's spiked on top and is said to be white or possibly Hispanic. He was last seen driving away at a high rate of speed in a dark four door sedan.